In All My Dreams I Drown
by KungFuHime2009
Summary: An old friend will return from self-imposed exile after an apocalyptic vision is announced by a well known dreamer. Meanwhile, Shrinking Violet is plagued by an unknown malady which is sapping her strength. Are the two occurrences related?


Nura threw herself forward in a desperate attempt to escape her nightmare. She was shaking uncontrollably as she heaved in all the oxygen she could manage. Beside her, her beloved Rokk stared at her with great concern. He knew the look on her face. She'd had a vision, and a violent one at that. He wrapped his strong arms around her slim figure and felt her trembling ripple through his chest.

"Another vision?" His voice whispered into her ear.

"Yes. The same one." For months now, Nura had been plagued by a recurring dream of apocalyptic proportions. She saw New Metropolis burning as people's screams rang out in the air. The Legion was scattered throughout the debris and ruin of their base as a massive green light filled the orange smoky sky. Eclipsing the sun was the Emerald Eye of Ekron, now larger and more powerful than ever seen in the history of the galaxy.

"We should tell the Legion." Nura whimpered. Rokk sighed deeply.

"We have only just recovered from the last Dominator attack. This kind of news would destroy any moral we have left." The last three years had been long and arduous. The betrayal of Brainiac 5 had been the catalyst of an uprising in the United Planets. Calu had become the target of many angry races. Talk of war had looked serious until the Hivemind Collective announced the planet was entering a state of complete isolation from the rest of the galaxy. The planet has since been inaccessible and no one has spoken to a Coluan since. As for Brainiac 5, who left the Legion soon after the defeat of his ancestor, he has not surfaced on any planet according to the latest security sweeps. Probably a good thing since the rumor is he has a disgustingly high bounty on his head in some very scary circles.

"We've put it off far too long Rokk! If we wait another day I'm afraid we'll all pay for it!" A tear rolled down Nura's pearly cheek. She had slightly dark circles from the constant interruptions in her sleep patterns. Between missions and the visions it's a wonder she was able to sleep at all. Rokk couldn't bear to see her so drained.

"Alright. We'll announce it at the next briefing."

* * *

Shrinking Violet stumbled into her room. It was dark and she couldn't be bothered to find the light switch. She knew where her bed was and simply flopped on the mattress in her clothes. Her head was spinning something awful and she felt ready to hurl any second now. Ever since the Dominator attacks and the uprisings in the United Planets, the Legion had been at the forefront of every confrontation, negotiation, and battle. For every one of those situations a certain Imskian with in-depth knowledge of the Legion C.O.M.P.U.T.O. systems was needed. Violet had pulled a 12 hour shift with little to no break time and only 3 hours of sleep thanks to the 12 hour shift the day before.

_ 'I don't think I can do this anymore.' _She thought to herself. A wave of emotion rolled over her tired body as she kicked off her flats and pulled her knees to her chest. She laid on her side in a fetal position and tried to find her happy spot in her mind. She traced the lines of memory back to the only moments she'd ever felt true happiness.

His eyes were always so serious and certain. Like purple beacons of knowledge. His skin was only synthetic, but she often thought it looked like green silk. She'd never touched his skin without her gloves, so she wasn't sure of her hypothesis, but she liked to think that way about him. Smooth, soft, kind, and smart. All words she used to describe Brainiac 5. A sigh of contentment escaped her lips. She felt the fatigue take her and sleep wrapped her in its warmth.

_"Nicely done Vi." _His voice made her heart skip a beat. How long had it been since she dreamed of his voice? Too long.

_ "For your information, I can do more than shrink." _Ugh, she hated her voice. It wasn't girly at all. Too coarse and deep. Her mother and grandmother had the same voice. She was cursed to sound like an old woman for all her life, regardless of her age. Brainy never seemed to mind her weird voice. The day she'd joined the Legion she'd heard the scoffing and chuckling from the other Legionnaires. Brainy had been the first person to acknowledge what she'd been trying to say all along. She was more than just the girl who could shrink. She had the second highest intelligence level in the Legion, behind the obvious genius of course.

_ "I feel trapped, like I can't escape it." Fear? A new emotion on Brainy's face for Vi. She wanted to hug him, tell him it was all gonna be fine. She wanted the fear to go away so that she wouldn't have to see that look on his face again. It frightened her to know that Brainy could get scared. All the things she thought she knew about him had to be reevaluated now. He was more human that the others knew. Than she knew._

_ Now the dream went in a new direction. Not down memory lane, but down the road not taken. Violet working with Brainy in the lab. Getting to know one another better. Becoming friends. Had she and Brainy been friends before, or just glorified coworkers like everyone else?_ She savored the beautiful clarity of her dreams. They were her only solace. Outside that door was a cold and calculation world of demands and long work hours. She did not look forward to the briefing in the morning, but she was so far away from the real world now she couldn't care less.

She was happy. She was with him.

* * *

Brainiac 5 sighed. His stomach had growled loudly a moment ago. It echoed in the space of his home, a dome-like structure deep within a cave on Korlon. Getting to the planet had been difficult. Leaving New Metropolis alone had required a great deal more effort than most would have liked. After being denied transportation and rooms from every thinkable place on Earth, he had decided to take the less conventional route. He "borrowed" an atmo suit and jumped through a transmatter gate. He was pleased that his jump had ended better than the one he'd made to Zuun.

"Food." He mumbled as he powered up the screens which were hanging all over the room. He got up out of his hovering egg-shaped seat and went to the kitchen area. He'd built the entire dome in a few months. Korlon was the perfect place for him to escape the Legion and the rest of the galaxy. He'd piggybacked the screens onto the intergalactic news and Legion scanners to stay under the radar and still be up to date on the happenings of the universe. When his home world had closed it's doors to the outside, he'd watched the live feed from his seat. Did he feel sadness? Maybe, but it was more of a pit which couldn't be filled with anything. His home, his people were being rejected by the galaxy because of something he'd done. The fault rested on his shoulders. When the Dominators decided to start waging war, he'd been the cause.

**"Attack's averted by the Legion of Superheroes. Their public relations representative, Cosmic Boy, was unavailable for comment, but-" **Brainy pulled one of the many sealed silver bags on the shelf and returned to his seat. Nutrition packs were things nobody missed from supply transports. They didn't taste like anything but they were safer than fruits and vegetables. Brainiac 5 only left the cave for supplies. He didn't dare chance it with the bounty hunters looking for him all over. Korlon was isolated, but not uninhabited. There was one major city 100 clicks from his place and he wasn't exactly the most inconspicuous being in the galaxy.

He popped a chunk of multicolored nutrients into his mouth and caught sight of his hands. Not the jointed complex exoskeleton he'd known his whole life. Skin, layers of organic green material which housed his inner workings. How had he become organic? There was no logical explanation for the occurrence. Such a thing had never happened in his people's history, or anyone else's for that matter. He looked at his reflection in the clear screen in front of him. His green eyes, foreign to him. His eyes had always been purple. His hair was still blond, but now it was real. Not a rooted fiber that he'd implanted in his head to fit in. His fingers had nails on them, which he often forgot to cut. His appearance left much to be desired, proper hygiene was something he still hadn't the knack for. His hair had grown considerably in the 3 years he'd been living on Korlon. He'd gotten taller, not by choice but because his body willed it. His clothes were mended to the point of being nothing but patches now. The only constant in this ever-changing thing called life was his mark. The three connected circles on his forehead. The white mark of shame, as he called it.

**"This is Shrinking Violet. I'm signing off now." **A familiar voice rang like sweet music over the com channel. Brainy had hacked the com link 2 years ago, the need to hear his friend's voices too much for him to handle. Every voice was matched with the official photo of the Legionnaire. Violet's face popped up next to the channel. She'd grown in the past three years as well. Her hair dipped below her shoulders now. It hung straighter with multiple purple streaks that framed her stark white skin so beautifully. She was his definition of an angel. Her voice, her laugh, able to bring joy to anyone. It had to be true. She'd brought joy to a machine after all.

"Vi." He said her name aloud just to hear the syllables. He felt heat rising in his cheeks. Was he getting sick? Was this that strange phenomena that Bouncing Boy demonstrated every time Triplicate Girl showed him affection? Brainy didn't know. Not knowing was something he'd grown used to since becoming organic. It was a confounding sensation that led to painful headaches and frustration. He didn't like it.

His last real memory of Vi was when he'd thrown her into the wall on the ship. Her head made contact with the metal wall and produced a sickening noise. Her voice, so kind and understanding, erupted in a high-pitched grunt and she crumpled to the floor like the shattered remnants of a ceramic vase. He passed her by like she was nothing. In 1.0's eyes, she was. Brainy was torn apart at the seams by his ancestor as he beat down his friends and killed Superman. As he digitized Thanagar, Brainy remembered feeling himself slip into a numbness. The end was finally near. He longed for the solace of nothing. To become nothing. To join his friends in the data banks, comatose but not alone. If Superman and Kal-El had not come at that moment there would have been no stopping 1.0.

Brainy slumped in his chair, shoveling in the rest of the nutrition pack so he could go back to sleep. It was late on Earth and nothing looked amiss in the galaxy, a rare occurence. He tossed the silver packet on the floor and powered off all by one of the screens.

"Play archived data. Loop." Images of the early days played before his green orbs. His induction into the Legion. The first photo of Superman with the Legion. The inductions of his friends. It was all there. Triplicate Girl had made sure that a camera was around for any and all moments that needed capturing. The lids of his eyes drooped and shut. A voice entered his unconscious mind. The voice of an angel.

_"You okay?"_

_A/N: You do NOT wanna know how many false starts I had on this story! It literally took me a year to get this first chapter right! I've been a longtime fan of the Legion show and was devastated when it was canceled. I remember watching every episode like my life depended on it. I read up on the comics and the idea began to germinate in my feeble fangirl brain. XD Hopefully I'll not run into any more set backs with this ;D_

_~KungFuHime2009_


End file.
